Week 4 is a relief from week 3 and nicely comprehensible. We meet Leopold Bloom for the first time. He’s eating his offal breakfast, which sounds rather gross and tasty at the same time. He feeds his cat, which in my head is Lars. (btw my neighbour’s looking for a home for 1 or 2 of her cats if you’re interested B & C). We also know there is a lady asleep upstairs, although we’re not sure who she is. Bloom goes out to buy some kidney meat. Joyce goes off on a Bloom thought ramble about the places he’s walking by, the people he meets, etc. In the shop Bloom tries to get served quickly so he can follow a young lady with sexy hips ‘hams’, but she’s gone by the time he is served. He gets back and the woman is his wife Molly – some singer or performer. We also learn they have a daughter Milly who is a 15 year old music student living away from home for the first time. Bloom seems to have some sexual desires for his daughter he tries and fails to stop. Bloom, or ‘Poldy’ as Molly calls him, makes Molly’s tea. You get the impression Bloom is very affectionate and doting toward Molly, but that she is also quite a strong tough lady – the trouser wearer perhaps. Someone called Dignam has his funeral today. Bloom burns the kidney, eats it, and goes out to take a dump. Bloom might be a writer or journalist but I am not sure.
Before when reading Ulysses I kept finding myself wandering off in my mind, and losing track of the text. I thought it was because of my own lack of concentration. But actually now I think it’s partly the book itself that causes you to drift off and get lost. There will be something in the text that will prompt a related thought, and by the time you’ve stopped thinking of it – perhaps only a few seconds – the text has jumped to something else and you lose the connection. It’s like the jumpy thought patterns of the text cause jumpy thought patterns in the reader. Or maybe it IS just lack of concentration. mmm
Hey guys! what happened? nobody is reading anymore?? honestly, I thought that after my bad performance you had deleted me from the mailing list
I tried, I swear, but destiny conspired against me reading the Ulysses! Why read the Ulysses when I can read yoru posts! 